Monthly Archives: December 2014

In the film, Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson finds himself transported into the 1920’s where he encounters people and places from a time period he’s been coveting. Head to Seattle and you might find a similar experience if you head to Top Pot, where their “hand forged” donuts are based on a secret 1920’s donut recipe.

(from left to right) A Maple Glazed Old Fashioned and a Yeast Raised Glazed

The interior of their downtown flagship café gets my award for best interior design. It’s a place that makes you feel like you can sit back and relax for a while as the world bustles around you. It has the ambiance of a rare book library, which compliments their classic donuts.

There are a few yeast selections here, but the menu skews heavier to cake donuts. My advice is to try a few of the cake donuts with their wickedly crunchy surface and an interior as moist as warm cake. The toppings and varieties are fairly standard, but the nostalgic taste makes up for that.

I first tried the standard yeast, glazed donut. The glaze was perfect, not painfully sweet, and the donut was chewy and fresh with hints of vanilla laced in. I also had an maple old fashioned donut. The old fashioned cake was very tasty. Traditional with a slight crunch on the outside. The maple glaze had some good spice to it, but watch out because it was tooth-shattering sweet.

Tis the season to eat donuts. So skip the stocking stuffers and get a dozen to stuff your face with instead. Preferably a dozen with some yuletide flavors.

For my Christmas treat last year I opted for Dough Loco’s “The North Hole;” a peppermint-y donut raised about as high as my tree. This year, I kept it close to home at Montclair Bread Company in Montclair, NJ. They get in the spirit with several festive flavors like Chocolate Candy Cane (chocolate cake run, dark chocolate ganache, and crush candy canes), Cranberry Orange (vanilla ring, cranberry orange glaze, Egg Nog (whipped eggnog custard, gingerbread cookie), and Gingerbread (buttermilk cake ring with molasses and spice).

Each year I grow older, I love the taste of ginger more and more. And it’s hard for me to turn down anything that contains cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, or maple. So naturally, I went for the Gingerbread donut. It had the right amount of spice I’ve come to expect from gingerbread and the glaze was very tasty. I would consider adding that donut to my list of Christmas traditions.

Hanukkah is here! I’m not of the Jewish persuasion, but I can certainly get down with the Jelly Donut/Sufganiyah tradition. During Hanukkah, Jewish people commonly observe the tradition of eating these fried treats to remember of the miracle associated with the Temple oil not running out for 8 days. Any tradition that involves eating donuts is alright in my book!